The following formats: wav, ape, flac, mp3, mp4, m4a, aiff, aif, aac, can be played if the corresponding converters are setup. Other formats may also be configured. The StealthAudioPlayer now can play different audio file fromats by specifying a converter and the command line for each of the format in the StealthAudioPlayer.ini For details please see "Converters setup" section in Readme.txt

Playback starts immediately. Minimal delay before playback start even for large files.

Be careful with "Next" feature. Don't use it many times in a row quickly. However should be fine for cue sheets. Will be fixed.

Additional dialogs are displayed for initial setup and errors.

For details on installation please refer to Readme.txt included in the zip.

Only in case you really feel like it, here is a chance to thank/support/encourage me by donating a few bucks.

97 comments:

I have a problem with the sound starting to chop after a little while (when I am multitasking it seems). It only starts chopping after a while. I've got 4 gigs of RAM and i'm outputting USB to an iBasso d10 with the buffer set to 30. Among a couple of other odd problems. Otherwise your program is revelatory!

I am guessing the problem is with too small buffer size. You might want to try setting it to the maximum and see how it sounds. If you have time, please describe other problems you are having with SAP. I will try to fix them.

Assuming we set the Windows sound properties to the highest settings (i.e. 24bit, 192kHz), will WASAPI auto-detect and play the exact format of our .WAV file (i.e. 16bit, 44.1kHz) bit-perfect/untouched?

In windows control panel You set sound properties for WASAPI shared mode.My player uses WASAPI exclusive mode which provides exclusive access to the sound device and sets the exact format of your wav file.

Therefore even if you have 24/192 in the control panel and your wav file is 16/44, StealthAudioPlayer will set up device to play in 16/44 format.

BTW, I cannot play 88.2khz 24bit wav file via WASAPI mode of your player.I can play same file via ASIO mode of your player and WASAPI mode of foobar2000.44.1khz 16bit file is no problem.I'm using FF400.Can your player play 88.2khz 24bit wav file via WASAPI?

When I used new "Converter" function, playing m4a file did not work correctly (sometimes).At my PC, output of sound from speaker started before finishing convert from m4a file to wav file.In this case, play back stopped at the middle of music file.temp.wav file was created correctly after output of sound.

24/88 did not play here as well. I tried xmplay and it converts it to 16/88 before sending to WASAPI. I am suspecting foobar also does not send exact 24/88 try to look in the foobar logs. It's either foobar uses not exclusive (shared) WASAPI mode or it converts from 24/88 to something else.SAP will display a message if cannot play a file format in the next version. In the case above it just gets stuck silently.

I cannot get the player to work with my Empirical Audio Off-Ramp USB-SPDIF converter. When I try to play a file, I get the following error:

audclnt_E_endpoint_Create_failed

Changing from exclusive to shared mode does not correct it, and changing the buffer size does not change it. It happens with .flac files and with plain .wav files too.

The odd thing is that if I use a Blue Circle Audio "Thingee", which is also a USB-SPDIF converter, everything works fine. The only difference I can see between the Off-Ramp and the Thingee is that the Off-Ramp is 24/96 capable, while the Thingee is only 16/44 capable.

The problem is that SAP tries to match data format exactly with hardware capabilities. So Off-Ramp cannot be opened in 16/44 mode by WASAPI exclusive and that's why SAP gets an error. I could try opening for higher sample size, 24 in your case. It wouldn't hurt to supply 16 bit sample for a 24 bit device. It will still be bit perfect.Will try that.

That would be great. I've tried all the other players out there an SAP is by far the best sounding, and it would be great to be able to use it with hi-rez devices, even if I'm just playing 16/44 stuff (the majority of my music collection, and most other people's too, I suspect).

Dear Andy:In the readme you said that running installstealthaudioplayer.ini file will also bring up files that stop, fast forward etc. I've run the file already and only a registration entry file has come up. Have I gone wrong, and if so what do I do to fix it?

By setting a latency of 300 ms in the asio control panel and then playing a flac file with stealthaudioplayer, the first part of the track is skipped (I'll guess the firs 300 ms :-)). Can this be fixed?

Follow up with Mr. Anonymous' post on August 20, version 0.1.4 seems to have Trojan Horse virus, and 0.1.3 doesn't. Could you double check?

I LOVE this player, the best sounding one compared to Foobar, Ulilith, XXHighend, CPLay. Now that it plays FLAC files instantaneously without me having to store my music in WAV format is the greatest news to me. However, I do have the following questions:

1) In WASAPI mode, is there a way for it not to use the default device? Lack of this feature made me having to use ASIO, because I use the default device for casual stuff such as Skype, and my Firewire DAC is only for music listening.2) Can we play APE files also instantaneously, just like FLAC? As it stands now, playing APE requires MAC to complete converting APE to WAV then starts playing. FLAC, can be done on the fly.3) When playing FLAC files, after executing 'StealthAudioPlayer_Stop.bat', I can see the process of StealthAudioPlayer.exe being stopped, but the FLAC process is still going on if I stop before the whole FLAC file conversion is done. So, every time I have to manually kill the process, to play another FLAC file. Can you modify it?4) Can you double check the 0.1.4 version's virus issue? I am using AVG downloaded from http://free.avg.com

Thanks for your comment!Yes 0.1.4 is identified as a virus by my AV software as well.That's funny.Because the new version I am working on is "virus free".One more thing to check before posting a new version :).

Most of your questions are already solved in the upcoming version.Will have to work on WASAPI default audio device question though.

Thanks for the prompt reply. AVG is not willing to let me use 0.1.4 after hitting multiple 'ignore' button. :-(

Regarding APE, I am trying to figure out how to do it in 0.1.3 (I hope it will also work there). As I usually only listen to WAV, FLAC, or APE files, I did download libmad.dll, so I can play mp3 files correctly. But when I modify the APE line to:ape=sox\sox.exe %1 temp.wav

or

ape=sox\sox.exe %1 temp.wav -d

I would still get the ""Error Opening Wav File "C:\stealthaudio\temp.wavERROR: 2"" error. Could you help please? (Note due to AVG reason, I am using 0.1.3 version)

I am in heaven! Thank you for addressing each and every request I posted on August 31st. I am a very happy person now!

I was a bit disappointed when last year in November you mentioned that you were going to the Apple Macbook route. I am so glad you came back, as I have not had a chance to try this whole computer playback with an Apple. People have said Mac Mini with Amarra is pretty good. I have no clue about that. But, in the PC world, StealthAudioPlayer rules!

Those errors mean that the virtual memory could not be locked from swapping to the hard drive.As I can see it's happened only for one track.And even if it is not locked in physical memory it could still remain there if the system is not heavily loaded.So shouldn't be a problem. But I will look into when I have a chance.

Just a quick follow up, I tried the software with other computers w external DACs instead of built-in speakers. They worked fine. Must be an O/S or hardware problem! Please ignore. :-) Now I'm looking into MP3 support. Having a tough time locating "libmad.dll" on the net.

Sounds great with FLAC! Better than foobar for sure! I love the fact that there is no U/I!!!

Hi regarding these built-in speakers. They might not support 44100 sampling rate with WASAPI. You could try the following:

1. convert a 44.1 kHz wav file which doesn't play to a 48 kHz wav file and try it with SAP.2. Check under Control panel->Sound Settings for the device and see if has 44.1/16 mode listed in the drop down list.3. Google your device to make sure it supports 44.1 with WASAPI/exclusive.

Other players probably just silently convert 44 to 48 if they can't initialize device in the 44.1 mode.SAP does not convert anything. If the device does not support some mode with WASAPI it just won't play.

I have been using your StealthAudioPlayer with satisfaction.But, last night and this morning, Anti-virus program in use of my PCs detect Troy/Spy file in the player program. So, It is now impossible to use the StealthAudioPlayer. I like the sound of this player, so, I hope to use.How should I use the player without risk?

The sound quality of your StealthAudioPlayer (SAP) is superb. In comparison with foobar the SAP sounds more natural and delivers more details without any harshness in treble. My wishes for further versions are:

1. Reading of tags to play the tracks in the right order of album. Actually SAP plays the tracks in alphabetic order. My work flow uses “Exact Audio Copy” for ripping and converting the CD into FLAC. Then “Mp3tag” generates the tags of tracks.

2. It would be nice if you attach the windows icons of StealthAudioPlayer_FastForward.bat, StealthAudioPlayer_Next.bat, StealthAudioPlayer_Pause.bat, StealthAudioPlayer_Prev.bat, StealthAudioPlayer_Start.bat, StealthAudioPlayer_Stop.bat with a special icon, which will be sent to screen as a linked program icon for example http://all-free-download.com/free-icon/start-stop-button.html.

In my setup with WinXP I have combined SAP with Irfan View as Graphic Viewer for the CD cover. http://www.irfanview.de/ A screenshot of my SAP User Interface http://www.abload.de/img/stealthaudioplayerundimb12.jpg

My setup of SAP differs a little to your Readme. The StealthAudioPlayer.ini rested unchanged for FLAC files. Inside the SAP folder I have copied only the FLAC.exe. It works. :)

Meanwhile I have learnt how icons will be changed. Here the first result http://www.abload.de/img/sapiconsk54z.gif based on a download http://all-free-download.com/free-icon/start-stop-button_page_3.html

Paint.NET http://www.getpaint.net/features.html plus the icon plugin http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=927 helped myself to make the background of icon transparent and converted the icon file from PNG to ICO.

You have written “SAP can open m3u playlists as of 0.1.6. You can create the playlist in any order you like either manually or with some freeware music player.”

How can I transfer a playlist from a music player to SAP? My ideal solution would use the library function of foobar combined with SAP as engine which gets the playlist by foobar. http://www.abload.de/img/fofrgui21dda.jpg Is this a feasible way for you?

I suppose that a modification of foobar preferences playlist tree would create a path to SAP. http://www.abload.de/img/foobarpreferenceswd6w.gif

I don't think you can integrate SAP with fbar. All I am saying is that you could create a playlist in your player (fbar for example) then save/export the playlist to a file with m3u (or m3u8) extension.

in those m3u files try to add an empty line after the last track.Just open m3u file in the notepad (or any other simple text editor), place the cursor at the end of the file at the end of the last track and press "Enter". The save it and play with SAP.This should help.

hello AndyStill have problems with mru-playlistswhen i click next,it doesnt play:it reports:ASio failed to play audiofile,bits per sample=0,samplerate=0,channels=0I then have to restart the playlist from the beginning(sucks)thankshere's a screenshot:http://members.home.nl/fibers/screen.bmp

hello Andy and Roger,i will try some other buffer-settings(for edirol ua25EX-Asio)im sorry i have no more detail on the error" i load the playlist with SAP,play some tunes,click next and OCCASIONALLY it will crash(not SAP,but my asio-driver crashes) I use WinXP/Sp3/3Gig-ram...its not a real issue for meI really Like the playlist-functionality in SAPThanks

I am also an user of avast and get the same malware alarm. But this a false alarm.

The best way is to inform avast about the false alarm by sending a notice to avast. The workflow goes by using the avast virus container which sends the AudioStealthPlayer.exe and some explaining data to avast.http://www.abload.de/img/falsealarmstealthaudioleol.gif

Here a workaround for users of avast or other anti malware software which detects StealthAudioPlayer as malware:

In a first step restore StealthAudioPlayer from virus container. If you want use StealthAudioPlayer then deactivate in a second step avast or other anti malware software for the playing time of StealthAudioPlayer. --> "right mouse click on avast icon"

To avoid AV virus detection, you could also try adding StealthAudioPlayer.exe to an exclusion list in your antivirus software.In avast, for example, there are at least two exclusion lists: for on demand scan and for realtime (on access) scan. Search for exclusion lists in advanced settings.

It is a bit off topic but I have tested the hint of suerteenpila to use dBpoweramp as ripping tool and converter. He has compared SoX and dBpoweramp and found improved sound quality with dBpoweramp.

My workflow involves Exact Audio Copy (EAC) as ripping tool and converter. I ripped and converted my test file both to flac format, compression level 5, by EAC and dBpoweramp. foobar is still my database tool and produces the playlist.mru.http://www.abload.de/img/soelmementofoobar7e07.jpg For a quick cross-comparison between EAC and dBpoweramp I made two playlist iconshttp://www.abload.de/img/steuerelementesgxm.gif The result of sound comparison is clear: There is no audible difference between EAC and dBpoweramp.

Forgot to mention I was upsampling and dithering... Sorry about that, it should be clear that bits are bits so there should be no difference in converting a flac to a wav if you are not running it through any DSP.

All of the above can cause sound degradation. The tools you mentioned address HW issues and OS being bloated.SAP addresses only the playback part, number 3.You can further improve the sound quality by tweaking the rest of the sound path elements.As an example I would suggest display go to sleep mode while playing audio.

Hi Andy I haven’t been here for a while. I just like to say Thank you for your wonderful audio player. This is the best sounding program for windows out there. I use it every times when I listen to the music. Recently I try to download Stealth Audio Player 0.1.7 but it is infected with Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Agent.dbyj. I find out later that every version that you uploaded at www.rapidsharecom are all infected with this Trojan. I beg you please fix this problem.

StealthAudioPlayer.exe is not a virus!It's the way AV software works! They try to score bigger points by identifying even slightly suspicious SW. The reason AV "detects" SAP as virus is that SAP don't have a GUI and creates temp files. Funny!In every AV there is a way to add exclusion. You might want to try to find it in your AV and add /path/to/StealthAudioPlayer.exe to the exclusion list!.That part you have to investigate yourself.

Hi Andy!Thanks you for your wonderfull player, the only Iamusing nowdays to play music,(classical only).But one cuestion: are you working for the possibility to play DSD files, nativity or via plugins, like theDXD files on 2L.no?Thanks in advance

Peter again here. Still enjoying the player very much, a big thank you!

Recently I've been setting the buffer time down to 10ms, and liked the sound even better than 30ms. However, it gives a popping sound occasionally. I think by going to Windows Task Manager and setting Stealaudioplayer to REALTIME makes the popping sound happen less frequently. Is there a way to modify either the batch file or the .ini file to make the process 'REALTIME' automatically?

Also, the second (after StealthAudioPlayer) best combination on the PC platform I believe is using KMPlayer + Reclock + WASAPI. When Googling, it seems some Japanese websites are saying they can use StealAudioPlayer together with Reclock, but it's not mentioned how it's accomplished. Do you know how? I'd like to give the combo a try if possible.

in StealthAudioPlayer_Start.bat you will find "REM"ed out line with /REALTIME switch. Un"REM" this one and "REM" the other line.

Regarding buffer size, I also had good results with highest possible (until I get error message) values.For example my sound device allows 30-499 ms range. The best results for me were around 30 and 499 but not in the middle. But it's all subjective.

Hello Andy, I have my server tweaked with every driver, service and registry key disabled that will still allow audio play and I've been looking high and low for a player that will occupy the smallest footprint possible. However, I'm using a Wyred4Sound DAC, which has its own driver, to deliver Asynchronus USB; the only version available is Kernel Streaming.

Hi Andy,your Audioplayer is a formidable player with the best sound currently. I´ve tested different formats, but there was no chance with wv-files. A lot of hirez are packed with it. Inserted the command "wv=wvunpack.exe %1 temp.wav" in the ini under converters and included the command in the sap-root was not successful. The error is: "No audio file is selected to play..." The command after the prompt runs without problems. Have you an idea? Is there another decoder for wavpack?RegardsMatthias

Hi Andy,to add my last post refer wv files: I changed the Start.bat and include the line: IF [%~x1]==[.wv] set FileList=%FileList% %1. Is this changing correct and complete? Now it runs.regardsMatthias

Hi Andy,I could not download the zip file of Stealthaudioplayer_v0.1.9 from RapidShare portal these days, and the RapidShare always urged to buy RapidShare Pro. I am afraid the Rapidshare would not be a decent portal site suitable for Stealthaudioplayer.

Hi Andy,I'm using SAP along with my HiFace, so WASAPI is the only option I can choose.But recently I figured out that gapless mode only fails when using N_Setting=0 option. With N_Setting=1 everything is fine.

It would be great if you could implement file adding to current playlist. I would be very pleased by that function.

Hi Andy,I am using a Juli@ soundcard which uses Asio output. I have a problem with SAP when he starts the Asio driver it uses the outputs 1,2 (these are analog outputs) instead of 3,4 which are the digital outputs. can this be achieved in some way?Regards